Litel reporting #2/Flynn for #5/DD

Stephen Litel taking Ingram's nonsense in a chat and turning it in to an article. These guys have no clue. With that said, if it went down as reported here (#2/Flynn for #5/DD) I would question BC's sanity and what information Kahn has on him.

The Minnesota Timberwolves hold the highest draft pick in the team's history, selecting in the number two spot in the upcoming NBA draft. As is the luck of a franchise needing a bit of luck, they just missed out on the opportunity to draft in the number one slot, giving them even more options on draft night. However, with recent reports of Ricky Rubio finally ready to sign on the dotted line and join the team next year—if there is a season—it eases the pain of missing out on the top pick some and also helps aid in the decision making process.

After all the discussions and waiting for Rubio the past two seasons, you can expect he will receive as many of the minutes as he can handle. The Timberwolves have already discussed options to bring in another veteran point guard along with Luke Ridnour to help mentor Rubio during his first season in the league. That is, someone who would understand they would not receive much playing time behind both Rubio and Ridnour. That is one of the many reasons why Jonny Flynn is out there in trade rumors and it is expected he played his last game with the Timberwolves already.

This brings us back to the number two pick in the draft and what the Timberwolves should do with it.

Recent reports state the Timberwolves are in discussion with the Toronto Raptors regarding a deal which would send Jonny Flynn and the number two pick to Toronto for guard DeMar DeRozan and the number five selection. While the Timberwolves should continue their due diligence to see if they are able to get more from their assets than only DeRozan, if this is the best they can do, they should think long and hard about it.

Without question, the Timberwolves have a nice core of talented, young players. To name a few, Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, Wes Johnson and, apparently, Ricky Rubio. If they were able to add a player of DeRozan's athleticism and promise, it would be difficult to pass on it since he plays a position of need for the team. As a young player, he does have flaws in his game, such as his difficulty in shooting the three, but coming into his third year, he may be ready to completely break out.

Receiving a significant jump in playing time in his second season, DeRozan was able to bring the additional boost in production. He is shaping into a flat-out scorer, despite his limitations shooting the ball. The Timberwolves are coming off a season in which both Kevin Love and Michael Beasley made great strides in their own respective third seasons, so it is more than possible to imagine the same happening for DeRozan in Minnesota knowing his work ethic.

These recent reports also beg the question: what is the plan for the Timberwolves at the center position? Darko Milicic put up respectable numbers last year when properly focused and motivated, but the ability to project his production from game to game is nearly impossible. Nikola Pekovic showed progress throughout his rookie season and gave great effort, but still has a long ways to go in his development. While most teams in the NBA don't have a terribly imposing center dominating the ball, the Timberwolves can get away with adding big bodies to the mix, but do they really think Anthony Randolph can play a majority of his minutes at that position?

Both the shooting guard and center positions are the glaring weaknesses for the Timberwolves, but with the players they already have on the perimeter it may make more sense to address the center position first. Some reports have the Timberwolves trading down in the draft to pick up Enes Kanter to play the position, while also picking up any of a number of unnamed veterans and unknown positions as well.

This is why the DeRozan trade would make sense for the Timberwolves. If the trade goes down as currently discussed, the Timberwolves would be able to address both positions. DeRozan immediately takes over the shooting guard position and Minnesota could take a bit of a flyer on Kanter at the number five selection, adding to their center position. This could give the Timberwolves a hypothetical lineup that would look like this:

Of course, there are many areas of flux in that rotation depending on how training camp would shake out and which players play their way into a starting spot or getting big minutes off the bench. However, as is well-known, draft days for the Minnesota Timberwolves are anything but ordinary. David Kahn may have something up his sleeve where he believes he is pulling one over on the rest of the league, but by moving on this trade - if it goes down as rumored - he could add more talent to his team. He would solidify roles more than they were last year as well, allowing the players a bit more comfort on the court.

More deals may present themselves before the draft or on draft day, so the Timberwolves should continue to shop around. However, if this is the deal that occurs, it would not be the worst thing for Minnesota as they continue to attempt to rebuild.

To put it in some perspective: the Wolves would like to move the 2nd pick in the draft probably because the think Irving and Williams are the best prospects in this draft (by far) and they do not need (the most) help at those positions. It's Rubio at pg, Beasley at sf and Love at pf. If they'd keep the pick, they'd trade Beasley according to the rumors. So any remarks about trading the 2nd pick AND Beasley can be canned. Some deal with Calderon + DD for Jonny Flynn + 2nd pick might not be so bad, freeing up some money in the process. This is a weak draft, but if that's because of the quick drop-off in talentlevel, it's not with the top two picks (if Irving is healthy...). Added benefit is that we drop another white European guy!

Matt,there's a reason you didn't believe this, it's because it's bullshit. Let's get the #2 pick in a one-man draft for a guy that's already shown he's on his way to be a good NBA player. C'mon. They can't possibly think that highly of Kanter or Knight that they'll waste the last two years spent on DeRozan. Also, BC wants to accelerate the rebuild, not take a step back by giving up DD!

Stephen Litel taking Ingram's nonsense in a chat and turning it in to an article. These guys have no clue. With that said, if it went down as reported here (#2/Flynn for #5/DD) I would question BC's sanity and what information Kahn has on him.

Yeah, this is what I love about today's sports "journalism". Ingram says Flynn could possibly end up in Toronto, so Kennedy declares Toronto front-runners. Ingram says it would be in Minnesota's interest to trade Flynn + #2 for DeRozan + #5, so Litel states there have been ongoing discussions between the two teams about the trade as suggested. The best part is it's Hoopsworld guys feeding off of other Hoopsworld guys. Journalism has never been so incestuous.

If DeRozan was traded Toronto would lose a lot of their fan base including me. I would prefer Beasley over Love. I know Love is good but I've lost all trust in 7 foot white jumpshooters

I probably wouldn't say something like that out loud. That's like saying you'd rather have Monta Ellis than Kevin Durant. Love is a better and far more efficient scorer. He's a far, far better rebounder and he's a better defender. Plus, Love isn't a headcase. The ironic part is that Beasley actually takes way more jumpshots than Love does. So basically you'd rather have Beasley because he's black despite the fact that he's a much, much worse player.

its all BS coming from journalist speculation, they call them opinion peices so they can practiclly claim anything. Like when it says "Toronto front-runners for Flynn" Its more like "This journalist believes that Toronto is a front-runner for flynn" and therefor doesn't have to approach any sources with confirmation, because the only person that needs to confirm a belief is the journalist. If I had his job I could pretty much throw "Lebron coming back to Cleveland; A Possibility?" and make blogs go crazy and my sight hits explode. The point is, dont take any of this seriously, nothing thats written on hoopsworld is credible. I haven't seen one newspaper report about these rumours or even one credible blog. Demar isn't going anywhere, we all know about how proud Colangelo is of his draft picks.

Even as the 6th pick in 2009, flynn did little to prove his skills and potential to even be a NBA starting pg on the wolves, I do think that if Toronto wants flynn then there's a high chance that they will get him, but not in the expense of Derozan, but Calderon instead.

Even as the 6th pick in 2009, flynn did little to prove his skills and potential to even be a NBA starting pg on the wolves, I do think that if Toronto wants flynn then there's a high chance that they will get him, but not in the expense of Derozan, but Calderon instead.

its all BS coming from journalist speculation, they call them opinion peices so they can practiclly claim anything. Like when it says "Toronto front-runners for Flynn" Its more like "This journalist believes that Toronto is a front-runner for flynn" and therefor doesn't have to approach any sources with confirmation, because the only person that needs to confirm a belief is the journalist. If I had his job I could pretty much throw "Lebron coming back to Cleveland; A Possibility?" and make blogs go crazy and my sight hits explode. The point is, dont take any of this seriously, nothing thats written on hoopsworld is credible. I haven't seen one newspaper report about these rumours or even one credible blog. Demar isn't going anywhere, we all know about how proud Colangelo is of his draft picks.

As much as I like Ed Davis, so far the only guy who's shown any real, consistent evidence of being a decent NBA player on our team is DeRozan. So trading him and the 5th pick for the 2nd is completely preposterous.

What might make some sense is the 2nd pick and the 20th pick for DeRozan. I mean if BC were to actually consider trading DeRozan. Though even the prospect of being armed with the 2nd, 5th, 20th and 28th picks of this (weak) draft class does little to ease my mind of trading DeRozan. Imagine if this were the 2000 draft. Those picks would net us Stromile Swift, Erick Barkley, Speed Claxton and Mike Miller. Not good.

It's not crazy to think Flynn has any interest, nor is it insane to think the Raptors see Williams as a great player in this league. What IS crazy is to think that DeMar Derozan is really a piece being considered to land those assets.

The Raptors roster would add a 3rd string point guard, behind Jose Calderon and Jerryd Bayless - while adding combo forward Williams to the group of Amir Johnson, Ed Davis, Linus Kleiza, James Johnson, and arguably Andrea Bargnani - although he spent last season out of position at the 5-spot.

They would be losing their marketing darling, seat filling, breakout athlete, heir apparent to the slasher wing role left void since the days of Vince Carter - leaving Leandro Barbosa the only player on the roster with the ability to play SG.

And a direct rip

Maybe sometimes we'll never know if a rumor had any legitimacy, but other times the writer of the lie is so poorly informed that they show their hand.

I think we should all relax a bit. While we all know BC like to get trigger happy with deals that make a splash in the headlines, I don't think he'd dream of trading away an asset like Derozan. I'd be shocked if he tried to trade up given that even with a consensus #1 and #2, I don't think anyone can say any player looks like a surefire start. Irving may be just a slightly better Calderon. Williams is a huge unknown as 3/4s always are coming out of college. He could be a star, or just an Al Harrington or Beasley type player. Personally I would keep Demar over either of those options.

I think BC only makes a deal if he's not sold on Kemba, Knight or Kanter as legit top 5 picks. Could see him making a deal for a different type of prospect like Kawhi Leonard or Valuncianas if he slides a bit because of buyout issues. This team does not need to feel pressure to do much through this draft. The Raptors have young pieces and don't need to make trades for guys like Flynn or Wesley Johnson who haven't really proven to be more interesting prospects than Bayless, James Johnson and definitely not Demar.

Demar has NBA pro written all over him now. He turned his biggest weakness into his biggest strength in one season. It's obviously unlikely he can do that for every facet of his game, but it shows exactly the kind of commitment that can make him an all-star and will almost assuredly make him a solid starter for years. I think a lot of these bull**** articles come out because a lot of American journalists don't know anything about the team. They always assume we're in a state of chaos and panic. Chaos? Maybe. Panic? Rarely. They also clearly don't watch the team enough to realize you'd have to be crazy to trade Derozan after his past season. He does look like he may end up having the highest ceiling of his draft year from guys not named Blake Griffin.